Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says he believes all Connecticut residents who needed to be evacuated from their homes are now out, or will be able to walk out this morning.

A storm surge of over 13 feet cut off homes and some beach-front neighborhoods, especially in the western Connecticut, where Long Island Sound narrows and acted like a funnel for the water.

National Guard troops assisted state and local officials in rescue efforts overnight.

"We sent crews in high-water boats, troops, reinforcements to places throughout the state," Malloy said.

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The Coast Guard said it would resume a search in Milford Tuesday for a 40-year-old man who went missing Monday night.

Brian Bakunas was last seen swimming in heavy surf near the Walnut Beach Pier shortly before 8 p.m.

Nearly 625,000 homes and businesses are without power in Connecticut, with the number soaring in Connecticut's shoreline towns that were flooded by surging water from Long Island Sound.

The United Illuminating Co. reported Tuesday morning that 149,278 homes and businesses were without power, or nearly half of its customers. That's up from 90,000 on Monday evening.

Bridgeport, which is Connecticut's biggest city, had the most outages in the utility's service area, with more than 39,000 customers in the dark.

Connecticut Light & Power, the state's largest utility, reported Tuesday that 475,486 customers were without power. The utility reported outages affecting three-fourths or more of their customers in many shoreline towns.

Al Lara, a spokesman for CL&P, told WVIT-TV that restoring power will be time-consuming, but he wouldn't estimate when power will be back on.

On Monday evening Malloy said there was "no doubt" that thousands of residents could be stranded in their Shoreline homes as severe level four potential flooding appeared imminent, threatening lives.

Malloy said he would worry later at "who should have done what. What I'm most concerned with right now is the loss of human life and what we can do to prevent it."

The governor said he was issuing "a Katrina-like" warning, telling residents to get to the highest place in their homes if they are already experiencing flooding, or if necessary to their roofs.

Malloy, speaking directly to residents through the televised press conference, told them if they were not yet flooded and could get out, they should do so as the highest tide creeps along the shore from 10 p.m. to midnight.

From New Haven west the storm was expected to send the tides to 18 feet, which is at the highest end of the projections given earlier in the day, said Roy Occhiogrosso, special assistant to Malloy.

The governor was adamant that residents already affected not attempt to walk through flood waters or drive through them.

Occhiogrosso said most towns ordered evacuations to level one, two or three, but not level four as recommended.

Asked what Malloy's mood was with the newest information, Occhiogrosso said. "Not happy."

Many residents did heed the call to evacuate.

Last year, John and Lisa Mayer rode out Tropical Storm Irene in their waterfront home in New Haven's East Shore.

Monday, that wasn't an option.

The Mayers were among thousands of shoreline residents who were packing up and leaving as Hurricane Sandy - deemed the biggest potential disaster in Connecticut history - gained strength as it moved its way up the East Coast.

With firefighters knocking on doors and reminding people of the mandatory evacuation, the Mayers were calling all over in search of a hotel room.

"Some hotels aren't even answering their phones," Lisa Mayer said.

More than 400,000 people across the state were without power just after 7:30 p.m. Monday, with hundreds of thousands more likely to end up in the dark over the next two days.

Malloy, whose tenure in Hartford has already included two historic storms - Tropical Storm Irene last August and the October Nor'Easter two months later -- warned shoreline residents in at a morning news conference to "get out before you can't."

With wind gusts beginning to pick up and with the threat of an unprecedented storm surge looming, Malloy ordered all trucks off the state's highways at 11 a.m. and all non-emergency vehicles off by 1 p.m.

Many shoreline towns had mandatory evacuations in place Sunday night, and virtually all of them had recommended evacuations.

Transportation options were limited with train and bus service stopped and Bradley Airport closingat 1 p.m.

The greatest wind speeds were expected from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. with subsequent outages lasting "for a long period of time," Malloy said from the Emergency Management Operations Center. The winds were expected to hit 40 to 45 mph with gusts up to 90 mph.

High tide at noon was higher than during Tropical Storm Irene. At midnight, it's expected to be 7 to 11 feet above normal high tide - which has the potential to cause "unprecedented damage," Malloy said.